Riddles

Riddles

Selima Hill

Selima Hill - Riddles

Riddles is a series of short, lively poems written in the voice of the materials found in the Challenge of Materials gallery. The answers to the riddles lead you from one object to another as we contemplate where the objects come from, who uses them and what their lives and loves would have been like, and why, if they were human.

Selima Hill also wrote a poem for the Inside-Outside Box by artist Richard Layzell which is still on display in the Challenge of Materials gallery.

Do the do
don't don't the don't
what you will
not what you won't
do the ceiling
do the floor
do the touchy-feely door
do the shivers
do the shocks
do the
INSIDE-OUTSIDE BOX!
Ply the wood
and cane the leather
rub the glass
and glaze the rubber
graze the grass
and fur the rocks
and do the
INSIDE-OUTSIDE BOX!

About the artist

British poet Selima Hill (born 1945) regularly collaborates with artists and has worked on multimedia projects with the Royal Ballet, Welsh National Opera and BBC Bristol. She is a tutor at the Poetry School in London, and published Fruitcake (Bloodaxe) in 2009.